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Curling

Curler travels home for nationals

Michaela Downey, the second for the New Brunswick women’s team, sweeps a rock during a game against Ontario in the Travelers Curling Club Championships at Cataraqui Golf and Country Club on Tuesday. (Julia McKay/The Whig-Standard)

The Travelers Curling Club Championship is a homecoming for New Brunswick second Michaela Downey.

It was 17 years ago when Michaela Lynch curled junior at Cataraqui Golf and Country Club. She went off to university in New Brunswick, eventually met her husband at a curling club, settled down in the Maritimes and took time away from the game to begin a family.

Downey has come back to Kingston for the Christmas holidays, spending time with her family. She is back early this year because of the success the Heather Munn rink from Thistle St. Andrews Curling Club in Saint John has had on the Travelers club playdown trail.

Along with players Kim Dow and Sabrina Keyes, they are a first-year team that won the New Brunswick title to earn the trip to the nationals being hosted at the six-sheet Cataraqui Golf and Country Club.

"It is nice to have a hometown crowd cheering. It's great seeing old coaches and people you have known before," Downey, a former Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School student, said.

She always kicked around the idea of hooking up with the women with whom she used to curl in Ontario for a fun reunion bonspiel, but "kids take over, lives get busy, so we see each other but we never curl."

Downey returned to curling in 2009, although with two small children it wasn't at the demanding, all-in competitive level but instead in an active club league.

"We have a great club at Saint John's. Eight sheets, great fun on Monday nights," Downey said.

But the competitive itch came back when Downey and Munn played mixed with their husbands, making it to the provincial finals a couple of times.

"I got the competitive bug back," said Downey, adding that over the summer she made a plea to skip Munn to "get back into it."

The combination worked well and the result has been a trip to the national championship. They have family bragging rights, too, considering their husbands have been trying to reach the national championship for a few years now.

"A little bittersweet because they watched us win and they have been trying for years. We just tried the one year. Threw the team together and said, 'let's go for it.' It is kind of impressive that we've never been curling together," Downey said.

Downey and third Dow, upon returning to New Brunswick, will be the co-chairs of the 2018 provincial Travelers championship.

But for now, it's all about curling at a national final in a club that holds some special memories for Downey.

"My name is on the wall for a hole-in-one and I'm on a couple of [curling] trophies. So it is nice to be back," Downey said.

The New Brunswick team lost its first game, 7-4 to Ontario in Draw 4 Tuesday. The Ontario team, skipped by Jodi McCutcheon of Toronto High Park, is off to a 2-0 start. Manitoba, also in Pool A, is also 2-0.

Another out-of-province player with a touch of Kingston in her background is Prince Edward Island skip Julie Mutch, who 13 years ago spent the summer months working at Bellevue House, a world heritage site. She applied online for the summer work and indicated she was willing to go anywhere.

Mutch recalled she didn't know anything about Kingston back then and had to bargain with her parents to report for the job. She said it was a summer to remember.

"I have been really looking forward to coming here and kind of remembering where things were. It's such a nice city," said Mutch, who curls out of the rural community Crapaud Curling Club, which is between Charlottetown and Summerside.

The P.E.I. rink has been together for four years and this is the players' first time at any type of curling championship.

"We are definitely club curlers. We love the game," Mutch, who had an 8-6 win over Stacy Stabel's Yellowknife team, said.

"We are happy to get a win to start. Whatever happens will be, but we will still have a great time when we are here, that is for sure."

Kim Dennis from the Richmond Curling Centre has Team B.C. at 2-0 in Pool B after wins over Northern Ontario and Saskatchewan. Team P.E.I. is 1-0, along with Team Alberta.

Travelers notes

There are 14 teams in both the women's and men's divisions with two pools of seven teams in both divisions. The teams play a six-game round-robin schedule within their pools, with the top three teams advancing to Friday when the playoff rounds begin. ... Ontario skip Jon St. Denis is 1-0 with his Richmond Hill rink. St. Denis is trying to repeat for the province at the national championship. Wes Forget of Cataraqui won the 2016 Travelers. ... Nova Scotia's Nicholas Deagle is 2-0 in Pool B. Ontario and Manitoba's Mark Anderson are 1-0. In Pool A, John Mryglod of Alberta is 2-0. Bart Sawyer of Nanaimo is 1-0. ... Draw times on Wednesday are at 9 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.